Court Restores Rights for Lesbian Mother

In a reassuring affirmation of the rights of lesbian and gay
parents, a chancery court in Mississippi has struck down a
discriminatory restriction on a lesbian mother's right to visit her
children, the American Civil Liberties Union said May 5.

Relying on a little noticed portion of a recent Mississippi
Supreme Court decision, Chancellor William Griffin lifted the
restriction that prohibited the mother, (referred to by her initials
R.M.) from visiting her children "in the presence of any person with
whom she engages in homosexual behavior or activity."

"This ruling shows that the state supreme court's decision in
Weigand v. Houghton has put a stop to these burdensome and degrading
visitation restrictions on lesbian and gay parents," said Leslie
Cooper, staff attorney for the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project
and R.M.'s counsel.

The Weigand opinion has been widely criticized for affirming a
trial court's decision to leave a child in a violent home rather than
grant custody to his gay father. However, in a less publicized
portion of the opinion, the Court held that orders prohibiting
lesbian and gay parents from visiting with their children in the
presence of their same-sex partners are illegal unless there is
evidence that the partner's presence poses a threat of serious harm
to the child. Chancellor Griffin did not find that R.M.'s partner
posed any harm to the children, and therefore struck down the
restriction on R.M.'s visitation.

"We are so relieved by the judge's ruling because the restriction
turned our lives upside down," said R.M. "My partner and I share a
home, which made the restriction especially burdensome. But what was
worse was that the children were used to her being around the house,
and I didn't know how to explain to them why she couldn't be there
anymore."

The ACLU said the ruling was a significant victory not only for
gay and lesbian parents, but for the children involved.

"The restriction never served the children's interests," said Jack
Williams of Dunbar Williams in Oxford, cooperating counsel with the
ACLU. "In fact, it did just the opposite. Requiring this mother to
keep a significant part of her life hidden from her children created
a serious obstacle to the development of healthy mother-child
relationships."